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Power demand from the Retina displays in Apple’s latest MacBook Pro models doean’t seem to be seriously damaging battery charge life.

Which? blogger Katie Waller notes that while an ultrabook is designed to be slim, light and portable, if its battery only lasts two hours away from wall current, it rather defeats the purpose.

Ms. Waller reports that the Which? test lab compared 18 Windows 8 laptops against Apple’s 13-inch Macbook Pro with Retina Display and the Samsung Series 3 Chromebook to see which gives you the best internet battery life.

She says the longest running Windows 8 laptop for web browsing is the Acer Aspire timeline Ultra M5-581T – a 15.6 screen, 2.1kg ultrabook that lasted almost six hours on battery, but it still fell 30 minutes shy of the battery life of the 13-inch Apple Macbook Pro Retina, although it does cost around £500 less.

Watching movies from the Acer’s hard disk, you a little over an hour less viewing time than the Macbook. The Samsung Series 3 Chromebook’s three hour and 44 minute battery life was mediocre as well.